Debbie DeVoe, CRS’ regional information officer for East Africa, is currently attending Sphere training in Nairobi, Kenya. She describes a field visit in this post.

More than 500 Maasai people benefit from the 16,000-liter water tank that supports both domestic use and livestock watering. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS.

Yesterday it was time to apply our Sphere training in the field. Ideally we would have visited an emergency response site, but instead we visited a water development project. This decision helped to avoid raising expectations or creating a disruption at a camp for Kenyans displaced earlier in the year by post-election violence.

We traveled in buses three hours south to a community near Kijiado. This semi-arid region is populated primarily by the Maasai—a nomadic ethnic group that herds cattle, sheep and goats as their primary source of food and income.

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Debbie DeVoe, CRS’ regional information officer for East Africa, is currently attending a Sphere training in Nairobi, Kenya. She briefly explains field challenges in this post.

Today was eye-opening. After learning about the minimum standards for each sector—water and sanitation, food, shelter and health—as well as measurable indicators to assess attainment, it was time to try to put the standards into practice.

Separate sanitation facilities for men and women are critical for health and security during emergencies. The facilities also allow for privacy, as in this camp in Eldoret at the Eldoret faigrounds in Kenya. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS.

Workshop leaders provided us with a real-world scenario: the current situation of a camp housing 2,700 people displaced by years of violence in Somalia. These displaced people live on private land. Unlike at other camps nearby, the residents don’t have to pay rent, but the land owner demands that they purchase household supplies from his shop. Water is trucked in, and four tents serve as UNICEF classrooms. The most pressing problem is a lack of toilets, as the landlord doesn’t want latrines built on his land.

We took on the roles of the displaced people, the landlord, government agents and aid workers trying to assist. Conversation was spirited as each group of stakeholders shared their opinions. Coming up with initial actions was far from easy—and this was in a classroom setting.

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